Bumblebees and honeybees deposit short-lived scent marks on flowers that they
visit when foraging. Conspecifics use these marks to distinguish those flowers
that have recently been emptied and, so, avoid them. The aim of this study was
to assess how widespread this behavior is. Evidence for direct detection of
reward levels was found in two bee species: Agapostemon nasutus was able to
detect directly pollen availability in flowers with exposed anthers, while Apis
mellifera appeared to be able to detect nectar levels of tubular flowers. A
third species, Trigona fulviventris, avoided flowers that had recently been
visited by conspecifies, regardless of reward levels, probably by using scent
marks. Three further bee/flower systems were examined in which there was no
detectable discrimination among flowers. We argue that bees probably rely on
direct detection of rewards where this is allowed by the structure of the flower
and on scent marks when feeding on flowers where the rewards are hidden.
However, discrimination does not always occur. We suggest that discrimination
may not always make economic sense; when visiting flowers with a low handling
time, or flowers that are scarce, it may be more efficient to visit every flower
that is encountered.

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